And cannibals. Does that sound like something you are behind or i havent i havent heard that. Is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing. The circus of it all, the meanness and lies and conspiracy theories. If i can help save the world from problems, im willing to do it. Donald trump hasnt grown into the job, because he cant. And the consequences of that failure are severe. Former president obama and President Trump both speaking yesterday. Good morning. And welcome to morning joe. It is thursday, august 20th, joe is off this morning. Along with willie and me we have White House Reporter for the Associated PressJonathan Lemire. Msnbc contributor, shana thomas. Historian john meacham, whose biography of john lewis accomplishes next week. And host of politics nation and president of the National Action network reverend al sharpton is with us. We are covering a lot this morning, including developments in the postal story, with House Speaker nancy pelosi saying louis dejoy will not restore cuts made to the Postal Service. Speaker pelosi said louis dejoy told her while he has agreed to refrain from additional changes until after the election he has, quote, no intention of returning the sorting machines removed from facilities or collection mailboxes taken from streets. And developments with the concern as florida yesterday became the fifth state to reach 10,000 deaths. Joining new jersey, new york, california, and texas. Georgia now leads the country in the rate of new cases according to the White House Coronavirus task force, which urged the state to take stronger measures to curb the outbreak. The infection rate in new york city, the former global epicenter of the outbreak has reached a record low, according to the mayor bill de blasio saying the rate is. 24 . Saying theyre connecting a lot of tests. Well dig into those stories in a moment but lets begin with senator Kamala Harris making history, becoming the first woman of color to accept the nomination for Vice President of the United States. In her speech delivered live from joe bidens hometown of wilmington, delaware, she shared parts of her own personal story, took aim at President Trump and called on americans to fight for the countrys future. My mother instilled in my sister maya and me the values that would chart the course of our lives. She raised us to be proud, strong black women. And she raised us to know and be proud of our indian heritage. She taught us to put family first. The family youre born into and the family you choose. I have fought for children and survivors of sexual assault. I have fought against transnational criminal organization. I took on the biggest banks and helped take down one of the biggest for profit colleges. I know a predator when i see one. Donald trumps failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods. If youre a parent struggling with your childs Remote Learning or youre a teacher struggling on the other side of that screen, you know what were doing right now is not working. So were at an inflection point. The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callusness makes us feel alone. Its a lot. And heres the thing. We can do better and deserve so much more. Right now, we have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons. Joe will be a president who turns our challenges into purpose. Joe and i believe that we can build that beloved community. One that is strong and decent, just and kind. One in which we can all see ourselves. Shana, thomas, ill let you dig into Kamala Harris effectiveness, prosecuting the case against donald trump which she began to do for the first time last night but to pause and see a woman of color, a woman of africanamerican color, a daughter of immigrants standing there as nominee in the United States of a Major Political party to become Vice President , what does that image mean to you, to the country . She can represent so much for so many different types of people. I think that word represent, representation, i think i talked about this on the show before, but this idea that there is a possibility that someone with darker skin, with experiences that no Vice President before, no Vice President ial candidate has had can be in the room with the president of the United States and start making decisions with some of that life behind her is a pretty head dy thing. And its one of the examples of what can make america actually great. But i also was struck by how much of her bio that she needed to talk about. I looked back at the nbc wall street journal poll and 13 of the registered voters in the poll who didnt know who Kamala Harris was or hadnt formed some kind of opinion positive or negative. 13 in this election is a big deal. And so, i think she did an admir admirable job of reintroducing herself to people, and showing how shes not only indian decent and black but comes from a blended family. She struck the different tones that can bring people in. It remains to be seen and historically, Vice President ial picks arent exactly what people vote on, but because of the representation and this was a historic night last night theres a possibility she introduced herself to a lot of people and made them feel they were in the room for when decisions get made. If they win. Well have a lot more on this, what Kamala Harris brings to the table, her leadership, her ability to fight. But lets get right to the unprecedented performance by barack obama last night, who assailed President Trump in his Democratic Convention speech, calling him a threat to democracy and issuing a stark warning to americans of the dire need to vote him out of office in november. The former president made his plea from the museum of the American Revolution in philadelphia, where he was flanked by the text of the u. S. Constitution. I have sat in the oval office with both of the men running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that donald trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously. That he might come to feel the weight of the office and discover some reverence for the democracy that had been placed in his care. But he never did. For close to four years now he has shown no interest in putting in the work. No interest in finding common ground. No interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends. No interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. Donald trump hasnt grown into the job, because he cant. And the consequences of that failure are severe. This president , and those in power, those who benefit from keeping things the way they are, they are counting on your cynicism. They know they cant win you over with their policies. So theyre hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that your vote does not matter. That is how they win. What i know about joe, what i know about kamala, is that they actually care about every american. They believe in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred. They believe that no one, including the president , is above the law. And that no public official, including the president should use their office to enrich themselves or their supporters. That our ability to Work Together to solve big problems like a pandemic depend on a fidelity to facts and science and logic. And not just making stuff up. So im also asking you to believe in your own ability to embrace your own responsibility as citizens. To make sure that the basic tenants of our democracy endure. Because thats whats at stake right now. Our democracy. John meacham, in my estimate, extremely powerful telling americans this is a dire time, especially given the questions that are happening right now with the Postal Service. What was your take away from president obamas speech and is there any precedent for Something Like this . , you know, whats remarkable about president obama, and i honestly had kind of forgotten it, was how he can combine two of the great human realities. He can argue from reason with a kind of restrained passion, right. Usually people are either really passionate and emotionally or highly cerebral. This is a fascinating combination of those two tributaries and formed an impressive rhetorical river. Its rhetorical in the classic cal sense. Rhetoric isnt just supposed to mean blah blah blah, its rooted in action. Hes always believed in the power of language, in the power of story. One of the things hell tell people that might want to run for office, whats your story . If you want to replace a different story you have to tell a narrative. The narrative he gave us in a very restrained, somber speech totally commensurate with the moment was a reminder that we are, in fact, more than the sum of our parts. I know everybody is talking about how blistering or whatever the analogy would be, how tough he was on trump. Really . Was he . Trump rose to National Power by deploying baseless, disproven, racist attacks against this man. I thought, if anything, obama took an intelligent high road, a wise high road here. And just says what a lot of us think. And thats what a great political or tour is about, can you articulate what were thinking . Senator harris did the same thing by talking about folks on both sides of the Remote Learning screen, a brilliant device from the fire side chat vernacular. Fdr always tried to find some way to be in the living room, around the radio with people. And what senator harris did in that image about teachers and students and families struggling she got in everybodys kitchen when theyre struggling online to get to class and the teachers being frustrated by it. So the net effect of both senator harris speech and president obamas speech, i think, is just to say we know this isnt working. You know this isnt working. And we hope, you know, a lot of folks hoped i know i did, president obama just said he did, that, you know, maybe miraculously this carnival barker would be transformed by the office. He was not. Instead of being transformed by the office, donald trump has attempted to transform the office and the country into something we shouldnt want to be. And here we have a chance, in 76 days, to fix it. I think that was the message and i think that was effective. It seems, reverend al, the russia hoax thats not a hoax and the tens of thousands set to die, due to die in the future, 170 already thousand, for some, it hasnt shaken them from the numbness of what has happened to our country, but to hear president obama say that he is a threat to our democracy, do you think that will make a difference . It will make a difference. First you have to look at president obama brilliantly went to the museum where the constitution and all the founding documents started there in philadelphia. President obama doesnt live in philadelphia, so this was something that he chose to use as the setting to bring us back to where the country started and what the country claimed to represent. The irony is, heres a black men who his people, our people, were ebb slaved and considered less than human werent included in that but he brought us back to this is what were supposed to be. I think that shakes a lot of people at their root. What i think he did most effectively given the political season connected to that, is he said let me be clear, President Trump is not only not living up to the spirit of what the country represented, whether it lived up to it or not, he cant do it, hes incapable of it. I think its the height of an attack for people to hear someone say, wait a minute, quit waiting for this guy to bring us out of the pandemic, quit waiting on this guy to save the economy that is a result of the pandemic, hes incapable. And the ultimate insult, as one that knows president obama relatively well and trump well, the ultimate insult to a white racist is for a black man to say, i did it but he is not capable of rising to the level that i did and pubush did and clinton did. That got under Donald Trumps skin more than everyone could imagine but i hope it got into everyone looking, into their heads, this guy cant do it, hes incapable. And thats a lot more serious than just saying this guy has made bad mistakes or bad judgment. He say he cant do it, hes incapable, dont keep him in that seat. Jonathan lemire, last night was extraordinary not just because of the way that barack obama went after the incumbent president but because of the way the president responded, sitting in the white house, in the building behind you, tweeting in all caps, live tweeting as his predecessor spoke. A couple of notes barack obama we learned was supposed to speak at the end of the night but when Kamala Harris became the choice he said no this should be her night so he moved himself up as sort of an opening act and a passing of the torch to Kamala Harris. What can you tell us talking to obama advisers about the way the speech was developed, how it came to pass and how he decided now was not the time to make not implicit criticism but direct criticism of the man in the white house. President barack obama almost never uses the president s name, but last night he did. He took the time, he enunciated Donald Trumps name and made it clear to pick up on the thread the reverend was saying a moment ago that it wasnt that people should wait for him to grow into the job, hes not capable of it, and he echoed what his own wife, Michelle Obama, said a few days ago before. The president is simply not up to the position, he cant do it. The message that the president wanted to convey last night, talking to some of his former advisers during the evening was we saw him last night angry. It was a righteous anger about the condition that donald trump has left not just president obamas legacy but the country itself. And more than that, and we saw him get emotional at times, seemed to be fighting back tears when he was recounting struggles that previous generations have had, fears their struggles could have been in vein if progress was unravelled by President Trump and he wanted to convey another message, hes scared, perhaps democracy and the country itself in this election and thats what he wanted to say last night and did so so powerfully. As you say, it triggered the current president who largely held his tongue the previous two nights during the convention. Didnt have much to say about the former first lady, Michelle Obama, i dont believe he said anything at all about dr. Jill biden. But last night before barack obama and senator harris took the podiums, he tweeted, welcome to the party. And then afterwards, a series of all cap tweets alleging without evidence that Barack Obamas administration spied on him, alleging without evidence, falsely, that senator harris called joe biden a racist, thats not true. And dealing in these untruths, in all caps, the obama people believe he made the point for him. This was just the latest evidence thats his behavior, this unhinged behavior they say, that President Trump simply isnt up to the job. And then theres this. With the backdrop of actually a letter i saw, a journalist tweeted on twitter yesterday of President Trump writing a letter to Vladimir Putin inviting him to his beauty pageant and he wrote at the bottom letter, most beautiful women in the world, exclamation point, hoping he would come and have a good time and with the backdrop of the Senate Intel Committee report on russia. Now a prom figure Alexi Navalny has been hospitalized from poison. A leading critic of Vladimir Putin reportedly fell ill during a flight causing the plane to make an emergency landing. He likely consumed the toxin from his tea his spokesperson said. The 44yearold Opposition Leader has been under the kremlins scrutiny for exposing corruption at the highest levels of the russian government and he was imprisoned last year and hospitalized after another suspected poisoning that doctors explained as an allergic reaction. Navalny had campaigned to challenge putin in the 2018 election but russian officials barred him from running. And still ahead on morning joe. Postmaster general louis dejoy will testify tomorrow amid claims that the agency is trying to sabotage mail in votes to help donald trump. Well talk to the head of that committee, senator gary peters. Youre watching morning joe. Well be right back. G morning well be right back. The open road is open again. 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